By Denie (a.k.a. Deacon Barry) (Photo by Denie above: The immortal Serge Nubret in his private deltoid zone during the mid 70's when this feature was written. ) (email: Ironco@webtv.net) MODERN BODYUILDERS long ago abandoned old insidious rituals involved in training-cleaning bars for pressing, changing weights and all the non-productive type of things that make the pump harder due to distraction nulsance factors. Shoulder training is a good example of this enigma.   When a seriously training champ is training for a contest he wants a streamlined pump and he wants it fast. Contest training (or very hardcore workouts) are a tough ring-around the-rosy scene. We had been programmed over the middle 20th Century years into believing to barbell press, we must clean a weight to the shoulder pressing level. Otherwise the shoulder trainee was but half a muscle athlete. That, is an abandoned and 'gone' conclusion when you study the true champs in accurate action. Let's look at the some big guys regarding this trend which started to blink out in the 1960's. And in the 1970's evolving staging area became a constant. When precision muscle group isolationists have (or had) little time, or want pure isolation they spit in the face of tradition and do it their way.   Serge Nubret the fabulous Mr. Universe and star of the movie "Pumping Iron" not to mention WBBG Mr. Olympus commences his deltoid routine with a simple leisurely version of the Dumbbell Lateral Raise. It's so simple it seems hardly worth while. Nubret begins by lying down on the floor, on his side with a dumbbell in front of him toward the direction he's facing. He grips the weight with elbow locked and raises it from the floor till his hand is parallel to the floor extended straight up. Later as the reps bomb his deltoid fibers out, to get extras he may bend his elbow slightly changing the leverage and forcing the muscle to work harder.   Nubret's One Arm Floor Lateral is a pure, direct, viciously intense deltoid fiberizer when forced to total failure. An added factor is that it's totally safe performed in this manner unlike presses which some go to failure with havIng the bar overhead. Now, once a set has been knocked out with one arm he quickly flips to his other side by rolling over and he's off again Into contraction land. Serge goes from one deltoid to the other in this fashion until reaching the pump he's after, then moves on to his next move.   This is a terrific way to approach delts because it's not tremendously taxing. And how many of us have missed important workouts because we were tired and didn't relish the idea of a super heavy bomb out. It may be lazy but one look at Nubret's deltolds (this Is his favorite shoulder exercise) and you can understand why 'lazy' may be muscle building smart. Incidently, he keeps his reps to ten or twelve, leverage moves require lighter weights for proper execution. Serge can get into a thirty-five pound dumbbell resistance factor or more. His occasional training partner (back than) Mr. France Gerard Buinoud felt the same way about this non-threatening non-exhausting shoulder trainer.   Years ago while sitting around the old Gold's Gym In Santa Monica, I observed West Coast pumpers are regularly taking short cuts. Out there they were grabbing hold of the Universal machine's pressing or bench pressing station. Another fallacy Is attacked here too-the fallacy training in a track will kill your press. In truth, when you're fast pumping it's a pleasure to jump off to this guided action machine and (almost) isolate deltolds by themselves implementing that guided track. You can punch the weight up, fast or slow, lean in or out, for fiber changing action and not worry about balance. This version goes to absolute failure and there's no getting rid of the barbell afterwards either.   The late superheros of Bodybuilding Mike and Ray Mentzer impilmented this Universal station after doing their preexhaust dumbbell lateral work. It substitutes for the pressing station on the Nautilus machine which combines laterals with a connected rear pressing station. Other massive champs of this period also noted at that Universal station were people like Mr. Universe Ken Waller, Mr. California Dave Dupre.   Waller who once sustained a bad elbow injury that encumbered his training intensity-but he still tried to keep his pump. He often could be found simply walking In off the street and over to this pressing station to push a few-he however used a variation of his own. Rather than doing two hand type pumping out moves . Ken performed numerous sets pressing with one arm at a time, while checking his deltoid internal fibers working with his free hand ... a novel and interesting way to concentrate and study the Intensity of kinetic Interaction.   Mr. California Dave Dupre when training for a contest moved freely in his deltoid work presses. Dave would alternate arms dropping in at this station to blast in the added flush and quicken the fatiguing of the three headed deltold muscle system. Dave though, preferred them seated not at the pressing station but on the floor at the bench press unit of the Universal. When training is crucial it often is better to keep it simple and' intense with methods such as these. The training approach is not being lazy, but economical with the energy held in reserve for the all important final workouts before a threatening contest . . . or a slight monotony breaker during normal periods when regular routines need a lift.   Granted many will still refuse to surrender to the lure of this simplicity, these men and women are married to their barbells and nothing less will suffice. Well, you don't have to divorce your plate loader If that's the way you really feel. All we need do is establish a viable way to get a heavy barbell into your pressing meat hooks. The best and fastest way is a seated press bench with racks. It's cleaner than cleans, and allows isolation heavy pressing devoid of excess pressure on the spinal erector (that can be good or bad depending on your personal needs).   Chet Yorton, the Mr. America, Mr. Universe who first riled up the sport (in the 1970's) against the use of steroids likes the press bench in his training. Chet has handled in the neighborhood of 300 pounds in the Press Behind the Neck using a press bench. No one in their right mind would accuse him of being a lazy trainer, because he didn't feel like cleaning a barbell. Cleans in most cases for advanced Bodybuilders have become a thing of the past. A past that wastes *time and energy' on the acrobatics of getting respectable poundages into position to stimulate a muscle or muscle group that requires your concentration. That means, not what energy is left after a fractionized indirect use of that energy . . . it's a fact of life that different muscle groups are stronger than others. You can equalize this by using such supporting and mechanical aids as press benches or extension stations and variations of leverage movements that isolate these weaker areas. If this were not so, leaving the deltolds as our subject and using the Bench Press as an example: men would not be bench pressing over 700 pounds today and boasting ultra-massive rounded pectoral developments. This was certainly not possible before the 1940's which brought with that decade benches of all types and forms. As well as pulley set ups. Later augmented by a quantum jump during the 70's revolutionary resistance redirectional Nautilus cams with preset stacks period of training evolution. The only thing left to discuss is reps and sets and preferentially these factors belong to the trainer with certain guidelines. If you're looking for a pump eight to ten reps in constant strict form is a necessity. Machines were not made to train for power, barbells were. Though, you can gain and build great power in any particular resistance machine movement which as a consequence destabilizes muscle control balance field systems. Machines (can) supplement barbell action, they do not add a true concentrated strength as do barbells which require a finer stability control. Therefore, machines that do not operate freely should be employed using more reps to derive beneficial contraction interaction from their tracking systems that is restricted. As high as twelve to fifteen reps for maximum pumping purposes is not too many.   The sets if resting periods are limited to 45 seconds or so between each as training expert Vince Gironda advised-will always be low.Training at that speed intensity will keep them that way. It is quality of a set which determines the ultimate building results. Three minimum and five maximum are decent guidelines, more proves the muscles are resting too long. The object should be to bomb the muscle into submission, not perform round the world trips endurance sessions that waste energy. And that point closes the circle we opened at the beginning of this analytical instructional feature. When dealing with deltoids train hard, be lazy . . . like the champions they get bigger faster that way. (back) http://community.webtv.net/Ironco/DENIEIRONCOWORLD